Ava DuVernay In Talks to Direct Two Sci-Fi Movies

The nerd community may have lost out on an Ava DuVernay-directed Black Panther, but this news might make up for it. The acclaimed director is reportedly in talks to direct not one, but two sci-fi movies, including an adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's classic novel A Wrinkle in Time.

According to Deadline, DuVernay is being "courted" by studios to helm two genre films; first, Disney has offered her the adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award when it came out and follows a young girl named Meg whose father goes missing after working on a scientific concept called a "tesseract." A TV movie was made in 2004, and a feature film adaptation has long been in the works at Disney, with Jeff Stockwell and Frozen's Jennifer Lee writing drafts of the script.

DuVernay has also been lobbied by Amblin Entertainment and Colin Trevorrow to direct the upcoming sci-fi thriller Intelligent Life, which will follow a U.N. worker tasked with serving as a human-alien delegate who falls in love with an alien woman. The script has been written by Trevorrow and his Jurassic World collaborator Derek Connolly.

DuVernay has not been confirmed for either of these projects, but it would be incredibly exciting if she signed onto either one, or both. Best known for her work on Selma, she is the first black woman to be nominated for the Golden Globe award for Best Director and the first black woman to have her film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. She was once in talks to direct the upcoming Black Panther, but ultimately left the project, citing differences in vision with Marvel. She was replaced by Ryan Coogler, best known for directing Fruitvale Station and Creed.